The cliff was soft and they quickly cut a smooth sloping path with their knives and hatchets.

Old Jack was the first to walk down it and Ned led him.
The horse hung back a little, but Ned patted his head and talked to him as a friend and equal.

Under such persuasion Old Jack finally made the venture, and when he landed safely at the bottom he drank eagerly.

Then the other two horses followed.

Meanwhile two riflemen kept a keen watch up and down the creek bed for lurking Mexican sharpshooters.
But the watering of the horses was finished without incident, and they were tethered once more in the thicket.